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PLANC AWARDS
The PLANC awards are a source of immense pride for our professional association. Each year, we take great joy in honoring our dedicated colleagues through the PLANC awards. These awards recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions to our profession and their commitment to excellence in all aspects of their professional lives.
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To nominate someone for a 2025 award, please select the link below to the appropriate form.
Dean Gerald Lee Wilson Award for Excellence in Pre-Law Advising
This award recognizes an individual who has made significant and sustained contributions to the pre-law advising community at the national or regional level. In the spirit of the great legacy of the award’s namesake, it is intended to recognize not only service to an individual’s institution or prospective law students, but service to the whole of the pre-law community. As such, while service to PLANC is certainly pertinent, other national-level service to the pre-law community is also worthy of recognition.
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Dean Gerald L. Wilson was a founding member of PLANC and widely recognized as a preeminent pre-law advisor in the nation, serving as the pre-law advisor at Duke University for decades. This award was first presented at the 2012 PLANC National Conference in Washington, DC and is given annually.
Emerging Leader Award
PLANC's annual Emerging Leader Award, first presented in 2024 at the PLANC Quadrennial Conference in New Orleans, recognizes newer advisors who have made a significant contribution to and impact on the pre-law advising community beyond their institution and have demonstrated the potential for leadership and continuing service at a national level.​
Inaugural Emerging Award Recipient
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2025
To be announced at the winner's APLA conference in 2025!
Meg Pickens
2024
Director of Pre-Law Advising Services,
University of Illinois, ​Urbana-Champaign​
Wilson Award Recipients
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2025
To be announced at the winner's APLA conference in 2025!
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Don Racheter
2023
Lecturer and Mock Trial Coach, Brian Lamb School of Communications at Purdue University
RJ Holmes-Leopold
2021
Director, Career Center,
Carleton College
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Gwyn Wallander
2020
Senior Student Services Coordinator and Pre-Law Advisor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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Frank Guliuzza
2018
Professor of Government and Dean of Academic Affairs,
Patrick Henry College
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Karen Severn
2016
Assistant Director, Office of Professional School Advising,
Texas A&M University
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Jim L. Riley
2014
Professor Emeritus of Politics,
Regis University
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Anne Brandt
2012
Executive Director,
LSAC
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Kevin Freeman
2024
Program Director, Pre-Law Services,
The Ohio State University
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Ana Alvarez
2022
Assistant Director, Institute for Law and Public Affairs and Pre-Law Advisor at University of Texas at San Antonio
Brother Glenn Bolton
2020
Pre-Law Advisor,
Saint Mary’s College of California
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Wendy Vonnegut
2019
Associate Professor & Director of Legal Studies,
Methodist University
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Heather Struck
2017
Assistant Dean and Pre-Law Advisor,
Cornell University
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Mel Hailey
2015
Professor of Political Science, Abilene Christian University
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Jerry Polinard
2013
Professor of Political Science, University of Texas-Pan American
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